Wpf animate background color

Question

I need help in taking right decision. I need to animate a background color of my user control when some event happens. When it is, I want to change the background just for 1 second and then turn it back. Which way should I go? Use color animation or timer or may by some other way.

Solved. Thanks to all! This works good for me:

        ColorAnimation animation;
        animation = new ColorAnimation();
        animation.From = Colors.Orange;
        animation.To = Colors.Gray;
        animation.Duration = new Duration(TimeSpan.FromSeconds(1));
        this.elGrid.Background.BeginAnimation(SolidColorBrush.ColorProperty, animation);

Answer 1

I would use an EventTrigger with a ColorAnimation.

In this example a Button Brackground goes green on a MouseLeave event. This code is hopefully similar to what you may need.

<Button Content="Button" Height="75" HorizontalAlignment="Left" Margin="27,12,0,0" Name="btnImgBrush" VerticalAlignment="Top" Width="160" Background="LightGray">
    <Button.Triggers>
        <EventTrigger RoutedEvent="Button.MouseLeave">
            <BeginStoryboard>
                <Storyboard>
                    <ColorAnimation To="Green" 
                                    Storyboard.TargetProperty="(Button.Background).(SolidColorBrush.Color)" 
                                    FillBehavior="Stop" 
                                    Duration="0:0:1"/>
                </Storyboard>
            </BeginStoryboard>
        </EventTrigger>
    </Button.Triggers>
</Button>

Answer 2

Watch out, you could received a System.InvalidOperationException if your background is a frozen instance.

Cannot animate the 'Color' property on 'System.Windows.Media.SolidColorBrush' because the object is sealed or frozen.

To correct this message assign the background of your control to a non-frozen instance.

// Do not use a frozen instance
this.elGrid.Background = new SolidColorBrush(Colors.Orange);
this.elGrid.Background.BeginAnimation(SolidColorBrush.ColorProperty, animation);

Freezable Objects Overview on MSDN

Answer 3

ColorAnimation colorChangeAnimation = new ColorAnimation();
colorChangeAnimation.From = VariableColour;
colorChangeAnimation.To = BaseColour;
colorChangeAnimation.Duration = timeSpan;

PropertyPath colorTargetPath = new PropertyPath("(Panel.Background).(SolidColorBrush.Color)");
Storyboard CellBackgroundChangeStory = new Storyboard();
Storyboard.SetTarget(colorChangeAnimation, BackGroundCellGrid);
Storyboard.SetTargetProperty(colorChangeAnimation, colorTargetPath);
CellBackgroundChangeStory.Children.Add(colorChangeAnimation);
CellBackgroundChangeStory.Begin();

// VariableColour & BaseColour are class of Color, timeSpan is Class of
// TimeSpan, BackGroundCellGrid is class of Grid;
    
// no need to create SolidColorBrush and binding to it in XAML;
// have fun!